The field of the present invention is connector assemblies for use in personal computers.
The personal computer revolution has placed computers in homes and businesses around the world. While these computers are typically designed for ease of use, they are not always designed for ease of building or upgrading. Building a computer involves assembling a variety of components; upgrading involves adding or swapping out components. The processes of assembling, adding, and swapping out components typically require the disassembly of a portion of the computer, and the connection and/or disconnection of electrical connectors.
A pin-and-socket connector is a type of electrical connector commonly used to interconnect components and assemblies within a computer. Such connectors are well known in the art and have known advantages and disadvantages. One disadvantage of pin-and-socket connectors is the relative ease with which a pin can become bent during connection. If the connectors are not aligned properly when a person attempts to press them together, one or more pins will be forced onto a hard surface of the mating connector instead of being inserted into a corresponding socket, potentially deforming the pin such that it is no longer aligned or shaped properly to enter the corresponding socket. Such damage cannot be fixed easily. Rather, the connector and potentially the component connected to it may have to be discarded.
When a person connecting two mating pin-and-socket connectors is able to see both connectors and has adequate space to handle both, that person can easily align the two and watch them as they are connected, in order to prevent misalignment and the resulting possibility of damage to the pins. However, many connections within a computer are blind connections, where the person making the connection cannot see the two connectors, but must instead rely on touch or on intuition in order to ensure that the two connectors are aligned and properly connected. The results of connecting together two mating connectors based on intuition or touch are often poor, resulting in bent or broken pins and expensive repair or replacement of components. Such a problem is even more acute when circuit boards such as a motherboard and daughterboard are connected together via pin and socket connectors. A motherboard assembly is typically expensive and relatively brittle, and damage to the motherboard can be costly to repair, if repair is even possible.
The present invention is directed to a cam and hinge assembly for use in a personal computer.
In one preferred embodiment, a hinge engages a cam such that the hinge first rotates relative to the cam, and thereafter linearly engages the cam.
In one innovative aspect, the hinge may include a guiding post that rides along the cam during the rotary motion of the hinge. In a further aspect of a preferred embodiment, the cam may include a raised arched surface along which the guiding post rides during the rotary motion of the hinge, and linear motion between the hinge and cam may begin when the guiding post rides off the end of the arched surface.
In another aspect of a preferred embodiment, the rotary motion of the hinge may be constrained by one or more engagement assemblies, and each engagement assembly may engage an axle on the cam to stop linear motion of the hinge relative to the cam.
In another aspect of a preferred embodiment, one or more cams are mounted on a receiving structure and one or more hinges are mounted in corresponding locations on a detaching structure, where the detaching structure is physically separable from the receiving structure. Engagement between the one or more cams and the one or more corresponding hinges allows the detaching structure to first rotate relative to, then linearly engage, the receiving structure, providing for reliable blind mating between connectors provided on the detaching structure and receiving structure. In one presently preferred embodiment, the receiving structure may comprise a computer chassis and the detaching structure may comprise an access or panel door.